WHO Warns…Just Say No to E-cigarettes!

Mark Twain said: “To cease smoking is the easiest thing I ever did. I ought to know because I’ve done it a thousand times.” Breaking nicotine addiction remains difficult despite the many aids available. Too often, as in Twain’s case, success is short lived. Smoking cessation is a huge business and the “e-cigarette” is one of the more recent products attempting to break in to this lucrative market. Complete with wisps of smoke, a glowing LED end and a piezoelectric nebulizer that vaporizes nicotine contained in the replaceable cartridges, it sounds like the ideal solution to quell the physical, social and chemical triggers that lead to relapse.
Sound too good to be true? Well, on September 19th, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned against using electronic cigarettes, saying “there is no evidence to prove they are safe or helped smokers break the habit… Toxicological tests and clinical trials have not been performed on this product.”
These devices are mostly sold on the internet and produced by unregulated companies (often in China). The World Health Organization became very concerned when they saw that some manufacturers were using the WHO name/logo on their packages/website and feared this could be construed as an endorsement by the organization.
Douglas Bettcher, acting director of the WHO’s Tobacco Free Initiative, said “It has really taken countries and the WHO by surprise. It has been a product that appeared very suddenly on the market in a short period of time.”
WHO press release: Marketers of electronic cigarettes should halt unproved therapy claims…
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